Majors

Browse Articles

Matt Kemp batted .324/.399/.586 and led the National League with 39 home runs, 126 RBIs, 115 runs scored and 353 total bases. He made his first all-star team. He stole 40 bases in 51 attempts.The 27-year-old Kemp performed so well, in fact, that he won the Baseball America Major League Player of the Year award.

The Royals turned over first base to 21-year-old rookie Eric Hosmer, who batted .293 with 19 homers from May 6 to the end of the season. That performance at that age solidified his standing as a top young talent in a year in which rookie pitchers Jeremy Hellickson, Ivan Nova and Vance Worley all pitched their way onto playoff rosters.

The free-swinging Cubs may have found a man to turn the tide. Zeke DeVoss, a switch-hitting outfielder taken in the third round of June's draft out of Miami, was an on-base and baserunning sensation in his introduction to pro baseball.

First baseman Brandon Allen struggled through his first three professional seasons before he got the message: One can collect hits by staying back and hitting the offspeed pitch to the opposite field. "I learned to have an approach and started to stick to it. You can't just go up there and swing," he said.

Mets first-round outfielder Brandon Nimmo seemed at home during a recent tour and media session at Citi Field. Actually, the only place that the 18-year-old wasn't comfortable was on the streets of New York, not surprising for a kid from Cheyenne, Wyo.

The Twins will enter the offseason with no position settled in their infield, and in a late-August radio interview, manager Ron Gardenhire added another name to the mix. "Brian Dozier has had a great season," he said. "I want to take a look at him, too."